Significant T.V.
Significant story significant entrepreneurs' I'm your host phrenic Neal and joining
me in the studio is another tiger that's true for those of you that didn't know I'm
a Princeton University grad and joining me today is Valley Girl and she is
a chef and I consult and she's
a restaurant tour this is exciting everything but the samples Valerie welcome to
the show thank you thank you so much for having me Oh my pleasure my pleasure I
opened with the Princeton reference so I do want to sort of start there Princeton
What was your major I majored in politics majored in politics how did you go from
politics to from. Well I always loved to cook I learned to cook as
a child you know really young my father taught me to cook and actually I cooked in
college I went to the dining halls too but I never really thought of that is food
service but I did spend
a lot of time cooking with friends and that kind of thing and learning some
international cooking when I was that Princeton and I really didn't know what to do
after school and and and a friend of mine who's actually
a professor at the University of. Nevada said I think you should do something in
food and it's like All right well OK well that's
a good stop gap job and so I applied for a job for
a job in my favorite restaurant at the time which was the commissary in
Philadelphia Oh absolutely oh that is a classic So when you apply for
a job at the commissary did you get the general what I thought I got the job and I
realize now having been. In the business for
a long time that the commissary was unique in that it so it made very
high quality very varied food but on a huge scale which meant it needed
a lot of not that skilled labor and most restaurants are not like that most
restaurants you kind of have to know what you're doing when you come in but because
the commissary acquired such so much labor they would hire somebody with no
experience. So you know if you if you look like you were
a reasonable person and you come to work. I saw
a big if in the restaurant industry then you got the job and I have to say I love I
love that work I never thought I would I never thought I would take
a job where I was using my hands I never thought I'd take
a job where I was standing up all day and I can still remember like after the first
couple days thinking this is a great and I was working in a basement we were in
a basement kitchen with like thirty other people or something and I loved it loved
it the passion often drives entrepreneurs and I mean some some folks would say it's
an absolute requirement so how did you go from working in the basement to
a job that you loved to only starting a restaurant owning
a restaurant and being well known. I opened I opened my restaurant in two
thousand and three we opened in Germantown and I lived in Germantown and one of the
things that I do
a couple of things that motivated me one was I got to the point where I felt like
there wasn't anybody I really wanted to work for anymore if I and also I didn't
feel the the burning need that
a lot of people feel to own their own business to be their own boss I just wanted
to work in a particular kind of place doing
a kind of food and nobody was stowing it and so there was nobody doing it so I
decided I'd do it myself and. I really wanted
a nice restaurant in Germantown I didn't take into Of into account the fact that if
I was working in that restaurant I still couldn't go there so we were disappointing
and then
a couple of years later we moved to Melanie airy which was more affluent area and
kind of where I'm with most of my customers came from the restaurant focused on low
country food which is the coast of South Carolina and Georgia My grandparents came
once I came from South Carolina once it came from Georgia and
a lot of the food that I made but not all of it were things I grew up eating or at
least knowing about and then. I kind of hadn't have
a real love of the food of the African Diaspora so I did things from the Caribbean
and West Africa and North Africa. And I think
a lot of our notice was because we were making food that other people weren't
making but I didn't I never thought of it is that unusual but that was the comment
I got over and over it's I go it's not like just regular steak and chicken I'm
thinking it's you know it's just food but. Well let's talk about that
a little bit more I mean you what was the name of the restaurant and why did you
choose that name the name of the restaurant whiskey to go Rice cafe and cheese are
the descendants of in slave Africans to live on the coast and islands of South
Carolina in Georgia and as I said My mother's parents came from Charleston my
father's parents came from Savannah and in the Low Country Rice was
a staple crop not wheat which is more of
a cold weather crop and I grew up eating rice every day and I mean that
literally every day when I was growing up we had rice for dinner and so I kind of
wanted. I kind of I wanted to acknowledge the place of rice in the
life of the people so that's why I put in the rest in the name of the restaurant
even though people sometimes with think that we were vegetarian or somehow that we
only served Rice I never could understand that it's like do you go to one little
house and think all the service knew it also but. Anyway but we got past that
people recognize what a very menu we had and. I don't know what
a rich tradition there was in the low country that we could really pay tribute to
talk about some of the menu items that people really remarked over basis
Well our most popular one was shrimp and and grits. I think the
tripping groups this creates has become
a lot more popular around the country these days and it has
a lot of different stuff in it the one that we do was really simple and kind of
white and creamy although it didn't have cream but it looked like that and just
shrimp and it didn't have you know didn't have my shrooms and scallions and all all
that kind of thing if I were making it at home I'd probably have bacon but I didn't
put bacon in that restaurant so and we got I got stone ground grits that were flown
in from actually are trucked in from South Carolina and that was that was one big
thing that made that dish so wonderful that we got grits from Anson mills which is
a really the premier vendor of organic grain and so
what I often have people say that they didn't like grits until they tasted our
grits. So that was that was one we made a pulled pork which is
a more of
a North Carolina thing but it was very similar the kind of stuff that I mean it
wasn't what you would make at home we'd go out and have barbecue or you know bring
it home but it was that kind of thing where we smoked the pork and in the house it
in-house and sauce that with the. Huts hot sauce and Miniger sauce and served with
Black Eyed Peas Black Eyed Peas So those were those were two that we were very well
known for. You're now talking in the past tense because the restaurant has
closed entrepreneurial East speaking how did you make that decision to close the
restaurant your baby you know what. It was you know what do they say you know in
writing you got to kill your darlings but it was you know we were open for twelve
years we had a lot of success and
a lot of ways we got an awful lot of press coverage up to including being. The Food
Network. But it was
a very difficult business model when I opened in two thousand and three I opened as
a B.Y.O.B. Was that was
a really fireball thing to do in Philadelphia but as the years went past it became
it became more and more difficult to operate that way and liquor licenses in the
city are extremely expensive and. I didn't see
it didn't it wasn't
a reasonable thing I felt for the size restaurant I had to try to acquire
a liquor license and stay in that neighborhood it was something that it would it
would have had to have been sort of wholesale change like moving to
a you know moving down town or moving to West Philadelphia or that kind of kind of
thing and I just didn't that wasn't something I was really willing to do at that at
that point so I decided to close the restaurant and just sort of move on OK so
you've moved on Chef and consultant What is your life look like now well I do some
projects on my own I done several things with
a historic house in Germantown in Germantown Clifton that has has done
a series of conversations about their kitchens they have
a seventeenth century kitchen and
a twentieth century kitchen so I've done food for those I did
a thing this summer with the Philadelphia Giants project connected with the great
migration so it was the first Friday of. Each month we honored one
state that people migrated from to Philadelphia and started it with Virginia and it
ended with Florida and so every month the jazz project would have would get
musicians and sometimes they would be from the state sometimes they would just.
Other other people who are from the state and I would come up with food that was
relevant and produce that and serve it Wow Well I'm so sorry I didn't know.
What you are you know let me on the e-mail list maybe I should ask what's coming up
that I need to know. That sounds really cool so and then in October I'm
doing another thing with clued in that based on your twentieth century kitchen
which is a nine hundred fifty nine to kitchen so they're doing. A thing
a mid century cocktail. Event and I think it's on October twenty second but.
And so they're doing you know something I don't know how many probably
a few cocktails and maybe why and I'm coming up with three order.
Don't ask me what you don't know
a lot of times you have to tweak things like that because
a lot of the stuff that they serve to the sentry you wouldn't necessarily want to
serve right now OK so but I'll come up with some you know some kind of word that I
was sort of substantial because that is
a cocktail event and you want people to have things to eat so that's one of the
things. That I'm working on I work also with a chef at
a place called material culture which is an offense space and. And I do
some mentoring I just finished the orientation for
a score of mentoring Oh great congratulations will sink in there because I'm really
interested in that and and I thank you. I am working although don't hold me to any
deadlines but I really would like to publish
a cookbook. That's something that I'm here and I would guess I am going to hold you
to all the glad I got so this is the business coaching me so I will be following up
with you. That scary Wow And in terms of do you
do private chef events I do so it really depends on what it is
and. It really depends on what it is so I have done so some of that and
it's more difficult if they're big I have to figure out where
a kitchen because that's a very difficult thing to do from a home from
a home kitchen but I had to have some partnerships that I. Working with Hope worked
with the caterer downtown where I worked with her chef on the menu and then they
produce it and people are always surprised when I tell them Look you know even in
my restaurant I wasn't cooking all of those meals you realize. I was developing the
menu and raining the people and making sure it was right so I do I do I do have
that and I have another friend with
a restaurant kitchen that he lets me work out of sometimes so if it's something not
too huge I would work out of that kitchen with something big I would probably put
a partner with somebody else to produce the few I'm sure some folks are wondering
how to get in touch with you how should they get into well the easiest way is.
If you can follow me on Twitter at Beachy girl cafe or you can reach me on Facebook
writes cafe So those those are I mean I do have e-mail but that's hard to remember
right so so so we can trigger Twitter and Facebook and we're also on Instagram we
get to go cafe although I don't check program quite as often occurs where I'm on
all the time. Well Valerie this is an exciting I am I again I'm so sorry that I
missed the Jazz Project Yeah but I did in October I'm going to put me on the list I
don't know I will really exciting Well this this is great to hear the story of
transition entrepreneur restaurants who are now doing the consulting and now also
mentoring so wonderful Well thank you let's continue to stay in touch and if you
need us a taste tester OK I'll keep it in mind by the delegates here it's
a significant story significant samples thinking if we get entrepreneurs I'm your
host friend McNeil continue to follow us on Facebook Twitter and You Tube.
And.